Me time – 67/366

Oh hell, I’m the product of a single parent I value time more in terms of quality than quantity.

I did two big me things today.

I went to my Pilates class.

Then I went to the Holi festival put on by the India Association of Phoenix.

The Holi festival has been one of those bucket list items, though it was more for the ones in India. A Holi festival is a Holi festival, though.

So I took the perfect spawn and drove to it right after Pilates, in such a rush I made him go to plates so I wouldn’t waste a moment.

It was fabulous.

Holi is a spring festival celebrated in India and Nepal. According to Wikipedia the “Holi festival has further cultural significance. It is the festive day to end and rid oneself of past errors, to end conflicts by meeting others, a day to forget and forgive. People pay or forgive debts, as well as deal anew with those in their lives. Holi also marks the start of spring, and for many the start of the new year”.

As I was leaving there was this text exchange with my mother:

This is what I’ve been fighting. I can’t stand these messages from her, they’re too frequent to me. They’re attached to things I don’t want in my life. They feel like a game… one I don’t want to play. I don’t like how these messages are so pointedly directed at making me feel inferior or substandard. I won’t live that way. Not anymore. So, I forgive her, because I think that this is something she inherited from her grandmother… but I won’t play anymore. I’m struggling too much to be happy to live with this.

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3 thoughts on “Me time – 67/366”

Holi is on my list, too. I’m out of luck this year, but next year! You and your son look fantastic and hopefully the rainbow colored smudges on absolutely everything will help paint away those unhappy texts. 🙂

The Holi made everything so happy. A lot of the time was about trying to figure out the cultural norms. I think my favorite moment was when a man came up to me and put the purple smudge on my forehead and gently said “Happy Holi”!
I was not prepared for the water fight aspect of this, but I leaned in to the process and actually ended up enjoying the cool water on my skin while out in the warm sun. I will go back, it was a treasured experience. And the food was awesome!
The funny end effect was taking baths; my son ended up with blue water and I ended up with orange.